


Self Care

by KircheFuchs



Series: The Little Things (A Tinsworth AU) [1]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Fluff, For now ;), M/M, Ricky is a softie for Tins, Ricky is gay, Ricky is the king of self care, Tins doesn't know how to take care of himself, Tinsley is understanding, Tinsley needs sleep, and it hard for him, and no one can tell me otherwise, he also doesn't know what his own emotions are, i feel like Tinsley is a tea person, i hate it just as much as y'all but we gotta be realistic here, im going to make this a series, period typical homophobia is mentioned, they are good friends(tm), very gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-13 19:53:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20588156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KircheFuchs/pseuds/KircheFuchs
Summary: There was very little that annoyed Ricky more than people being terrible at taking care of themselves.C.C. Tinsley just so happened to be the literal worst at self care.Ricky cant just let his favorite detective die on him so he decides to help out. If only the P.I. would trust the him enough to let him do so.However things take a little unexpected turn for Ricky once Tinsley unintentionally asks him a very personal question.





	Self Care

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this makes sense. It's my first fic for this fandom and I'm pretty proud of it. It's gonna be part of a series, I have a whole backstory planned out for these two dorks form the late 1940s.
> 
> And yes, they will fall in love eventually. Because period typical homophobia has got nothing on the bois!! :D

There was nothing that annoyed Ricky Goldsworth more than people not being able to take care of themselves.

C.C. Tinsley is the literal worst at self care.

Ricky, being a man of high standards, takes a great deal of pain watching Tinsley skip meals, forget to sleep for an entire week, and leave papers all over his office. Sometimes he wonders how he fell for this mess of a man in the first place. But that is exactly why he's decided to fix it. Whether he likes it or not, Ricky is gonna care the hell out of Tinsley, and no one is going to stop him.  
__________

It was four in the morning and this was the third day that week that C.C. Tinsley had gone without sleeping. He's been too close to solving this case to sleep, and so he's just been working not stop and only consuming tea. He can feel his eyelids growing heavy as he's reading over the case file again, and glancing over to his mug he can see that he ran out of tea yet again. He grumbles tiredly to himself, grabs his mug, and leaves his office to make some more tea.

After Tinsley left his office a certain short serial killer climbs through the open window and into the PI's messy office. This kind of thing was normal in their strange relationship.

Ricky glances across the room. It's a complete mess, "How does he live like this," he whispered to himself. There are papers everywhere, on the floor, spilling out of cabinets, taped and pinned to the walls, and somehow a few are hanging by a little piece of tape on the ceiling. And so, he gets to work.  
__________

Mug finally filled with tea again, Tinsley lumbers his way back to his office. When he opens the door however, he's met with a room that doesn't look anything like his own. "It's so clean..." he mumbled, then his eyes are drawn to the small figure sitting in his chair, "Goldsworth."

"Hey Tinman! Cleaned up your room a bit." He says with a smile.  
"As if I couldn't tell."  
"Aww, don't be like that. You can't be living in this office if your going to keep it such a mess you know. It's not healthy."  
"And why would I take health advice from a murder?"  
Ricky frowns, "Because I care, believe it or not."  
"Well I don't."  
"And here I thought we were friends." Ricky crosses his arms and pouts.  
"Ricky, I just can't deal with this right now. I've nearly solved this case."  
Ricky sits up, "Like hell you have! This is the third day you've gone without sleep, any normal person would be dead by now!"

Tinsley wants to retort, but he doesn't have it in him. As much as he hated to admit it, Ricky was right, this wasn't healthy. In fact it was probably hindering his work performance, and if he really cared about work he should really take him up on this advice.

"Fine, you win. But just this once. Because frankly I don't trust you very much."  
Ricky brightens as he stands up from the chair. He briskly walked over to Tinsley and grabs him by the wrist and starts to lead him out of the office.  
"Wait wait wait, where are we going?" Tinsley asks.  
"We are going to get you some sleep."  
"But-"  
"Nope! No questions, just follow."  
__________

Ricky opens the door to a clean house with little evidence of anyone even living there. The walls are a dark burgundy color and have a few paintings of nice landscapes. The windows have neat white curtains to contrast the walls and the floor is made of a dark brown wood. Tinsley looks around in awe at the cleanliness of the place.

"Ricky, what is this place?" Tinsley asks.  
"Oh, this is my home. And before you ask, yes, I bought it legally."

Tinsley took a moment to process this, or he tried. His brain was still sleep deprived, after all he didn't get the chance to drink his tea. So in a sleep deprived haze he relaxed and looked around the place once more.

"Very clean. 'Ts nice..." Tinsley then yawned and stumbled forward a bit.  
Ricky caught him, "Goodness, Tinsley don't die!"  
"Why do you care. You kill people all the time."  
Ricky frowned at this. "Tinman, all the people I kill are themselves criminals. They'd all be on death row anyways, I just got to them first because the police force is incompetent."  
"Hey!"  
"But never mind that. You need sleep."

Ricky lead the taller man to the guest bedroom, "Now sleep you big idiot." Tinsley reluctantly obeyed and flopped himself onto the bed. He didn't even bother to take off his trench coat. It didn't take him very long to fall asleep even knowing he was in a murderer's house, after all he hadn't slept in days, you can't really blame his brain for failing him. Ricky smiled fondly at the sight, then he left the room to occupy himself until the man woke up again.  
__________

Tinsley woke up in a bed that was not his own. Where was he? He didn't remember falling asleep...

Oh. Right. He remembered. He was in Goldsworth's house. Being able to finally fully process this fact, he began to feel nervous. He cautiously made his way out of the room and down the short hallway. When he made it to the end of the hallway he saw Ricky in the living room. He was looking through a few records, trying to decide what to put on. There was a plate of biscuits on the coffee table, they looked homemade. Tinsley awkwardly cleared his throat.

Ricky turned around quickly to face the detective, then smiled warmly. "Good to see you're up, CC. I made some biscuits, if you want one"  
"Sure...", Tinsley didn't move from where he was standing. Ricky frowned, "Oh come on Tinsley. I'm trying to help you. Just sit down and eat a biscuit."

Tinsley glanced at the floor, then briskly walked over to the couch and picked up a biscuit. He looked at it for a minute then cautiously took a bite. It's wasn't poisoned, he knew Ricky wouldn't do that. The shorter man sighed and put down the records as he walked over and sat next to the detective. Tinsley shifted awkwardly in his spot and refused to look at Ricky.

"Look Tinman, I get it. You have all the reason in the world not to trust me. But I'm being honest when I say I care about you. Honestly, it annoys me more than anything to see someone so bad at taking care of their own well being." Ricky scoffed, "and when I saw how much of a mess you were... well I had to do something!"  
Tinsley laughed at that.  
Ricky kept going, "I can't just let my private investigator die on me, not when he's smarter than everyone else on our town's police force!"  
Tinsley shook his head, "No, I'm not-"  
"Yea right! You are the first detective to crack my code. The first to figure out who I am. And the first to get in contact with me."  
Tinsley look at him surprised, "Really? But that was so easy!"  
"That's what I thought, but our police force is too incompetent to catch on that all of those guys should have been on death row. There is a reason they were all still out there."

Tinsley laughed but it died quickly as he thought about the situation, "Why didn't you just turn them in like a normal person would've?"  
Ricky looked away and slumped forward, he rested his elbows on his knees. Suddenly very serious, he near whispered, "I couldn't."  
"What do you mean?" Tinsley had no idea why he cared so much about this, but he did.  
Ricky looked at his hands silently for a while. "I-" his voice broke. He looked up at the detective with guilt in his eyes.  
Tinsley unconsciously leaned closer to him, he decided he didn't like seeing Goldsworth like this.  
"They know-" he bit his lip, "they know that I- I'm a homosexual."

Tinsley was shocked. Wide-eyed, the detective ran his fingers through his hair as he tried to take in the new information. He honestly never would've guessed a guy like Ricky would be a homosexual. Yes it explained some of how he acted around people but still. To think of what he would to go through if anyone turned him in. Tinsley felt bad for him.

Tinsley turned to look Ricky in the eyes again. The shorter man looked so scared. He looked like he was ready to up and bolt at the slightest notion of a negative reaction. Tinsley made a split-second decision and pulled Ricky into a hug.

It was then Ricky's turn to be surprised. This was not at all how he expected CC to respond. Eventually he hugged back.

After a few seconds Tinsley pulled back, "Thank you for telling me. I understand it took a lot of trust which I don't even know how I earned." He laughed a little and smiled.  
"You don't think it's weird, or bad?" Ricky was unsure of himself.  
"Of course not. What are friends for?"

Ricky thought for a minute. Tinsley had never referred to them as friends before. He smiled to himself, "I guess you're right. Thanks anyways."  
"Anytime."

Ricky frowned as he remembered something. "You know, CC, I dragged you away from work so I could help you take care of yourself. But instead you ended up helping me with my emotions. What's with that?"  
Tinsley took a moment to think about it, and began to laugh, "You've got a point there."  
Ricky got up off the couch and held a hand out to the detective, "Well, might as well get your life together now rather than later, Tinman."  
Tinsley took his hand and let him lead the way. He smiled to himself, he could get used to this.


End file.
